Other Views: Time to get serious over U.S. spying

The Obama administration and some members of Congress appear to have been taken aback by the reaction of foreign leaders who apparently learned recently that the United States has been monitoring their private phone communications.

News of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency of some 35 world leaders was reported by the Guardian newspaper based on leaks by former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden. An angry German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an explanation from American officials. Other U.S. allies, including France, Spain and Mexico, have also expressed objections following reports of U.S. surveillance of those governments.

The White House had to admit that President Obama was not personally briefed on the foreign spying. And while not specifically confirming the Merkel surveillance, the White House said her phone will not be monitored and some other foreign surveillance has been halted. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, went ballistic that her committee was not informed. She previously had vigorously defended the National Security Agency spying operations.

Some defenders have said the spying began before Obama took office in 2009, and there was no reason for the president to be briefed on an ongoing basis about specific targets.

The president can't be expected to know every detail of the federal government, of course, but it is unconscionable that the NSA would keep the president in the dark about something as sensitive, and controversial, as monitoring phone calls of leaders of allied nations.

A distinction is drawn between domestic spying, which has been approved by a federal court, and foreign intelligence gathering. It is fair to say that the United States is no different than any other country in conducting surveillance around the world. But that assumes the surveillance is aimed at tracking the communications of potential threats to our national security, not cellphone calls made by the leader of a friendly European power. In fact, the U.S. has mutual no-spying agreements with several countries, including Britain, Canada and Australia.

It is ironic that it took outrage from European leaders to get the attention of leaders in the United States. The reaction was generally tepid in this country to the Guardian's disclosures of NSA monitoring of U.S. citizens' phone calls and Internet communications.

With the exception of some civil liberties groups and a handful of members of Congress who have demanded more information and reforms, the Obama administration managed to get away with the excuse that the surveillance is necessary to protect national security. The Bush administration would never have gotten away with that.

It still isn't clear how much private information the government compiles on American citizens using its access to vast volumes of cellphone and social media data. Defenders say the government is looking at general patterns in data for potential links between U.S. citizens and contacts in foreign countries, not listening to phone calls. But even records of numbers called reveal private information about individual associations and habits.

It's good this issue is back on the front burner, even if it took outrage from foreign leaders to get it there.

Now maybe the president will get more engaged and learn the full extent of our spying on our allies. And maybe Congress will get serious about more vigorously performing oversight of U.S. spy agencies to protect relationships with our foreign allies and the privacy rights of Americans.

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Other Views: Time to get serious over U.S. spying

The Obama administration and some members of Congress appear to have been taken aback by the reaction of foreign leaders who apparently learned recently that the United States has been monitoring

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